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] Date Posted:08:38:09 02/05/17 Sun
I don't know whether Cornell, its electric utility, or someone else is responsible, but last night's game in Ithaca was delayed, restarted, and then postponed until noon today. They are restarting about a minute and a half into the contest with Yale up 2-0.

Obviously this is inconvenient for all concerned, most especially the Yale players, most of whom were probably going to use Sunday in New Haven to catch up on studies before going to Super Bowl parties.

An incident like this raises the question of why our League, with its wealth and power, doesn't cut our athletes a break by allowing air travel, in all sports, to venues greater than a 4 hour bus ride from either one's college or, in the case of basketball, from the team's location the day before the game. I am sure that ACC and BIG coaches, when confronted with a talented athlete considering turning down the big time to get an Ivy education, must pose the question: "Do you really want to spend a portion of the next four years on buses bumping around upstate NY and Northern New England? We travel via chartered jets."

Putting aside any recruiting disadvantage, don't we think that the Ivies should make a statement that they will invest resources so that their athletes are on a level playing field academically and socially, and not bothered by travel arrangements reminiscent of Class A baseball?[
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Date Posted:09:49:48 02/05/17 Sun
Agree wholeheartedly with Memphis Bill. How frugal do the Ivys have to be that Harvard students don't have hot breakfasts which presumably includes their student athletes. My pet peeve is the ridiculousness of charging viewers a fee to watch Ivy Digital. Not so much for the average viewer who is probably an alum but for the parents, family and friends of the athletes who often live too far away to travel to every game. Even the Patriot League doesn't require viewers to pay on their network.

Date Posted:10:48:55 02/05/17 Sun
Well said Memphis Bill and RIW.!!! Well said indeed.? Time for change in so many areas.? Those of which these men have stated. Also the possibility of Football joining the rest of The World as well. Adding another game,allowing oh Playofffs perchance. The league is outdated and stuffy . It has to change or it will be its death. You have time , if you start now. But keep doing what your doing and it will be just a memory.

Date Posted:10:55:28 02/05/17 Sun
Pretty certain a single charter flight runs from 20,000 to 50,000 dollars. We can pay more for coaches, improve facilities, or a million other things before paying for jets.

I'm an Ivy League sports fan, but no way should schools foot that kind of bill when the programs are pretty much operating on a loss.

Let's put it this way. If you pay for the men's basketball team to fly to Ithaca, then what do you do about the women's basketball team? How do you not fly them as well?

If you're flying the two basketball teams, then how do you justify not flying all the other varsity teams as well?

If you start flying athletes to League games, then you're pretty much begging the Ivy League to cut back on the total number of varsity teams. And if you fly any teams to Ithaca and/or Hanover, you're putting a lot of pressure on Cornell and/or Dartmouth to fly everywhere in the conference as a competitive response. Again, budgetary realities will probably lead to a reduction in the number of varsity teams.

Date Posted:11:17:19 02/05/17 Sun
And weather affects flights, too. I used to travel throughout NE, my rule of thumb was--if I could drive in less than 4 hours, I drove. Between getting to and from the airports, flight delays and so on, driving was faster. Of course, I flew commercial.

Date Posted:13:57:02 02/05/17 Sun
I enjoyed watching today's Yale-Cornell game on a Sunday afternoon rather than on a Saturday night. The Ivy League should make all of their league basketball games Friday night and Sunday afternoon. Saturday would then be a travel day and also a study day. That will help mitigate the energy drain which results from traveling by bus and playing consecutive days. It will also help to boost both hockey and basketball attendance by eliminating the fans having to choose between which game to attend on Saturdays.

Date Posted:10:51:34 02/10/17 Fri
Bus the way to go IMHO- everyone knows in the Northeast - travel time to the airport, getting through security, flight delays, etc. etc. - it all takes time. A bus picks the guys up and delivers them to the game - end of story.

Apparently there were general power outages in the area as well - so it was not just Cornell. At Columbia we had a game postponed when the gym ceiling sprung a leak !

Date Posted:11:55:44 02/10/17 Fri
I recall a frigid night during Winter Carnival (great party!) at the old Memorial Gym in Hanover. In the middle of the first half, somebody tossed a huge ice ball from the outside through one of the Georgian windows. The game stopped only long enough to sweep the ice/glass combo into a far corner. Given the tiny steam radiators, by the middle of the second half free-throw shooters were blowing on their hands and fans had parkas on, but the game sailed on. Afterward, I walked by the pile on my way out -- the ice/snow hadn't even begun to melt.